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By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD
Jan. 27, 2003 -- Learning to tap into your brain's
own energy may be a potent memory booster. A new study shows mastering
a process known as neurofeedback could help people focus and improve
their working memory.
Neurofeedback is a process that allows a person to
influence electrical activity in the brain as monitored through
sensors attached to the scalp.This activity is displayed in the
form of brain waves on a video game monitor, allowing the patient
to learn to control certain brain waves to correct or improve certain
activities.
Researchers say the treatment has been used in treating
disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
epilepsy, and alcoholism, but this is the first time a study has
shown a link between the use of neurofeedback and memory improvement.
The results appear in the January issue of the International
Journal of Psychophysiology.
In the study, 40 healthy adult volunteers participated
in eight neurofeedback sessions that required them to enhance the
performance of brain activity associated with memory function while
stopping other brain wave activity. Researchers wanted to see if
this type of neurofeedback training would affect working memory,
which is the type of memory needed to retain and manipulate information
while performing a task, like remembering a phone number for later
use.
To measure this effect, participants were tested before
and after the training sessions on their ability to remember words
that were presented to them from a specific category.
Those who received the memory training -- neurofeedback
-- were able to improve their recall from 70% to 81%, while recall
in the other group only rose from 72% to 75%.
Researcher David Vernon, MD, of the department of
neuroscience and behavior at the Imperial College London, in England,
and colleagues say the -trained group was also able to focus their
attention better on the task at hand.
Although more research is needed to confirm these
results, researchers say neurofeedback treatment may not only improve
the memory of healthy individuals, but also prove beneficial for
people who suffer from memory problems.
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